Dive Brief:
- The online paint brand Clare will be raising some of its prices starting June 1, according to a company email sent to customers Saturday.
- The direct-to-consumer brand is raising the price of a gallon of paint by an average of 8%. Meanwhile, Clare’s paint quarts, swatches and supply kits will see “moderate increases.” The company did not immediately respond to questions about how much those increases will be. A gallon of interior paint at the time of publication was $64, while a gallon of exterior paint was $69.
- In the email to customers, CEO and founder Nicole Gibbons attributed the increases to outsized inflation, noting that the company’s goal is to continue offering high-quality paint and customer support. Gibbons also teased that new paint colors and products will be launched.
Dive Insight:
Launched in 2018 by Gibbons, the interior designer created Clare because she found the paint shopping experience to be outdated. The company uses paint and colorants without volatile organic compounds and boasts a Greenguard Gold certification that assures Clare meets “the world’s most stringent chemical emissions standards.”
Over a year ago, Clare raised $8 million in a Series A financing round led by Pendulum, according to a LinkedIn post from Gibbons. In an interview with Business of Home in February 2022, Gibbons said she was looking forward to exploring distribution partnership deals and expanding the Clare team.
Prior to the Series A round, Clare had raised $4.25 million since incorporating in 2017, according to March 2021 data from PitchBook.
Some other companies have increased prices over the past year due to rising costs and inflationary pressures. Makeup and skincare brand Glossier in June 2022 announced it was raising prices by $1 to $4 on certain products, citing higher production and shipping costs. Skincare brands The Ordinary and Dr. Dennis Gross in December announced price bumps related to the costs of raw ingredients and supply chain logistics. After already raising prices in 2022, The Honest Company’s CFO in March told analysts on a call that the brand would enact “mid to high single-digit price increases” in the second half of 2023 across various categories.
